Hizbullah Says 'Forces' behind 'Expected' Iran Attack 'Well-Known'

Hizbullah on Wednesday condemned the attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers in Tehran that killed 13 people as a “terrorist crime committed by the hands of evil.”

“This twin attack is an attempt to harm the security and stability of the Islamic Republic, and to affect its firm stance that supports the resistance movements in the region as well as its position as a fortified fortress in the face of the forces of hegemony, arrogance and terrorism,” Hizbullah's media department said in a statement.

“The terrorist crimes in our region and the world are the product of a destructive global scheme that is backed, protected and assisted by well-known regional leaders,” the Iran-backed party added, noting that “the forces behind the gang that carried out this terrorist military attack are well-known and not concealed to all rational and cognizant parties.”

“Today's crimes in Tehran were an expected manifestation of the latest regional and international escalation in our region,” Hizbullah pointed out.

The attacks that killed 13 people were the first in Iran to be claimed by the jihadist Islamic State group.

The attackers struck at Iran's most potent symbols: its parliament complex in central Tehran and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who led the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The country's powerful Revolutionary Guards vowed revenge and claimed the United States and Saudi Arabia were "involved."

The Sunni extremists of IS consider Shiite Iranians to be apostates, and Iran is deeply involved in fighting the group in both Syria and Iraq.